Magic fingers

I rarely fish after dusk. Why? I think the main reason that I don't fish after dusk is I don't have this 'home river' which I know every inch of the banks, tree or rock in the water. And that's actually a pity because I've often heard how good the fishing can get after dark. Not sure if fishing after sunset is permitted in the rivers and streams I fish, so it might even be forbidden.

Probably everyone has this fear of slipping or stumbling over a rock in the dark. With a home river, one can focus on the fishing rather than wondering where you are and whether you are about to end up in a nasty current.

I remember this one evening with my buddy Dave during a moon lit night, a few miles away form his house on the Bow River in Calgary. Big browns were cruising along the banks sipping spinners. I can say it was something new to me yet very exciting. Minus those nasty mosquitoes which bugged me the whole evening...

Fishing in the dark means one needs a light to change a fly or even untangle a messed up leader.

Here's an unusual little LED light that I ran into. It's a LED light that is used to make light shows in the dark (probably on the dancing floor in night clubs) while wearing them on several fingers. It has a rubber band around it so you can tighten it around your finger. It comes in several colors including white, but the red one seems to be pretty useful since red light doesn't destroy the night sight as much as white light does.

I don't know when I'm going to end up in an evening rise, but I'll keep one in the back of my vest just in case.

Melody on bamboo

Here's a nice video made by a bunch of young Swedish guys who built some bamboo rods together and decided it would be nice to capture their efforts on video.

Too bad the video quality isn't fullHD (1080P)…

RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival 2014

The RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival 2014 is planned for 21 April 2014. This year is the fourth edition in The Netherlands since 2010. This year we're back to only one venue in Rotterdam at Cinerama.




The feature film for 2014 is Leviathan.

Tickets (€16 per seat) is only available here.


Program of the venue:
Tributaries 
Blood Knot 
Blackwater – Devil’s Gold 
Alaska - La Frontera Norte 
LEVIATHAN (feature film) 

Teaser of Leviathan:

The South African innovation: the Palm grip

South Africa is not the most obvious destination for most fly fishermen from Europe or the American continent. It was the book called 'The South African Fly Fishing Handbook' which showed me some truly unique streams in South Africa. No trophy fishing, but fishing in a very rural and amazing background that looks like a mix of New Zealand and the Montana.

For severals years I have been getting the marvelous newsletters by Tom Sutcliffe, a South African author of fly fishing books. Over the years, I noticed something in Tom's writings and pictures which caught my eye: the 'palm grip'.

Especially the articles in Tom's newsletter in November 2010 and more recently in June 2013 turns out to be epic reading. This quite unusual grip form evolved from the search for the ultimate small stream rod by Tom's friends Ed Herbst and Steve Boshoff.

The Palm grip was developed to keep the weight of the reel close to the hand while eliminating the gap between the end of the grip and the reel. Early versions of the palm grip looked a bit odd at first, but the more recent versions look unusually handsome. Sage made a few models of the SPL rod series using a very similar idea: the Center Axis rods.

South African rod builder Koos Eckard has been building rods with his interpretation of the palm grip and one of his recent rod built using the Orvis Superfine Touch blank looks pretty awesome. Yes, it does take a while to really appreciate the grip form, but the more you look at it, the more the grip form starts to settle in.

I'd like to see how the proportions of the grip changes if the grip was made a bit slimmer around the mid and lower section of the grip as well as bit less pronounced like the Orvis Superfine grip. Koos also finished a Sage Circa blank with the palm grip which looks a slightly more slender. According to Koos the palm grip is tremendously comfortable. Maybe I should try one of his rods with the grip in the future!

Update: Feb 6, 2014:
Koos says the Circa grip is the same as the one he made on the Orvis blank. Probably the angle of the photo. Well anyway, I think the grip looks very nice.

Just add some money… (II)

Looks like the Patagonia region is filled with amazing fisheries run by exclusive lodges. Here's another one in patagonian Chile with mouth watering fishing, food and scenery.

Got money? Book your trip here.